Recording Available – Caribbean Coral Rescue in the Face of Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease

This press release is available in English and Spanish

April 4, 2022 – The recording of the online training session ‘Caribbean Coral Rescue in the Face of Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease: An Introduction’ is now available on the GCFI and AGRRA websites.

Thank you to everyone who presented at and attended the latest online session about stony coral tissue loss disease and possible management response through coral rescue. A recording of the webinar can now be found online on GCFI’s YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/6koEm407cRU and the recording link is alongside other webinars at Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease – Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute (gcfi.org) and Webinars – AGRRA (https://www.agrra.org/webinars/).

Co-hosted by MPAConnect and the leaders of the Caribbean Cooperation Team from Florida’s Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease Response (NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program and the Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment Program, AGRRA), this is the fifth webinar in the series about stony coral tissue loss disease. It follows webinars on disease identification, monitoring protocols, best practices for treatment and strategic communications in support of stony coral tissue loss disease response.

Coral rescue refers to efforts to save the biodiversity of stony corals in the face of this rapidly advancing and devastating coral disease. Co-host Dana Wusinich-Mendez of NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program explains:

“The webinar introduces various approaches to coral rescue that are underway in Florida and the Caribbean region – removal and preservation of healthy coral tissue from impacted reefs, promoting larval propagation, biobanking of living colonies of the coral species susceptible to the disease, establishing a bio-repository of gametes including via cryopreservation, undertaking assisted coral reproduction, rearing coral recruits and undertaking subsequent stony coral restoration.”

MPAConnect Coordinator Emma Doyle commented: “Since questions surround the feasibility of coral rescue in the Caribbean, this webinar allowed us to hear from presenters who are implementing stony coral rescue efforts in the region, particularly Mexico, the Dominican Republic, US Virgin Islands and Florida. They share practical input about in-water and land-based approaches to coral rescue, the scale of investment involved, the level of required partner/stakeholder engagement and lessons learned from the challenges they’ve faced.”

Co-host Judy Lang added: “If you wish to learn more, or are considering any of these kinds of coral rescue efforts for your country, marine protected area or local reef, we’d like to hear from you. Please complete this online form so we can include you in future coral rescue activities.”

We thank NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program for supporting MPA capacity building in the Caribbean and for helping to share knowledge and best practices for detecting, monitoring and responding to the threat posed by this coral disease. For more information please contact [email protected] and see the resource hub at AGRRA’s SCTLD website https://www.agrra.org/coral-disease-outbreak/

Online introduction to Caribbean Coral Rescue in the Face of Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease